


Lost Light Pool Party

by not_whelmed_yet



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Pool Party, Roughhousing, Some Plot, Swimming Pools, but not the focus so not tagged, could read as shippy, for lots of pairings, rung can't swim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-08 22:57:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11656419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_whelmed_yet/pseuds/not_whelmed_yet
Summary: What it says on the tin! Rewind and Tailgate plan a pool party at the Fuel Reservoir and silliness ensues.





	Lost Light Pool Party

The passageways in the deep of the ship were nearly silent. The lights were dimmed to conserve energy, the motion detectors that should have triggered full lighting somehow did not observe the mech skulking through the darkness. He rounded the corner at the end of the hall and put a hand to the pressure-sensor. The enormous doorway slid open with a hiss.  
  
"Eyebrows!" Whirl shouted, as everyone inside turned to see the newcomer. "You made it!"  
  
Rung edged his way inside, stepping down onto the oil reservoir's observation platform. There were a few bots already swimming - Rewind, Chromedome, Tailgate and Cyclonus. It looked like Whirl had just gotten out of the oil, dripping onto the platform. Rung waved at the assembled crew.  
  
"Didn't want to stay cooped up in my office all night," he said, walking over to the edge of the platform and testing the temperature with his foot.  
  
"Glad you decided to come!" Rewind said. The more sociable bots, which is to say, everyone except Cyclonus, echoed him.  
  
"You're just in time to watch me make my dive," Whirl said. "It's gonna be great. Everyone hold onto your afts, we're gonna get wet."  
  
"Whirl-" Rung lifted a hand to signal this was maybe not a good idea, but Whirl had already made a running start towards the edge of the platform. He leaped for the ceiling, rotors spinning up to give him more lift as he curled into a ball. The other swimmers made for cover, sloshing as they tried to get out of the way.  
  
"CANNONBALL!" Whirl shouted as he arced towards the oil. He hit the surface and oil went everywhere, rising up in a tidal wave around the point of impact. Rung saw Chromedome gather Rewind up in his arms, turning them to block the wave with his back.   
  
It splashed over Rung, dousing him in oil. He shook off his arms, spattering the oil onto the now drenched observation platform.  
  
"I guess getting wet was inevitable," he murmured to himself, sitting down in the puddle and settling in to watch.  
  
"That was great!" Whirl said after he popped to the surface. "Next time I'll set off a few grenades when I hit the water. That'll make a real splash."  
  
"Whirl, I thought this gathering was supposed to be...discreet?" Rung said. "As in, not so disruptive that we draw attention to ourselves."  
  
"Sure, sure," Whirl said, swimming back over to the shore. "But the reservoir is pretty far from any of the habsuites. Ain't nobody around to hear us." He popped out of the oil and lifted himself to sit next to Rung. "You not swimming, Doc?"  
  
"I hadn't planned on it. I was just coming over here to enjoy all of your company," Rung said, smoothing his hands over the transformation seams on his legs.  
  
"Well that's gonna be pretty hard to do if we're all having fun in the oil and you're sitting here all on your own," Whirl said, wrapping one enormous arm around Rung's shoulders. "It's cool if you've never swam before, you can just float. The oil's real dense, you float easy."  
  
"I'm just not comfortable-  
  
"Guess who's here!" Swerve yelled, stepping inside dramatically and then striking a pose. Skids followed him in, carrying two crates of engex and a pile of curly straws. "It's the drinks man!" He followed up, equally declamatory, when nobody said anything in response to his entrance.  
  
"Thanks for inviting us," Skids said to the room at large. It was probably Tailgate who'd had the idea, but Rewind had quietly circulated the invitations and so it was hard to tell who to blame for this party.  
  
"We've brought offerings of intoxicants to make the night go smoother," Swerve said. "Since we're all friends here, drinks are free, tonight only."  
  
"Sweet! Toss me something hard, Skidders, I don't want to even remember I hung out with you losers this time tomorrow."  
  
Skids looked over at Whirl. Very slowly and deliberately, he put the case of engex down on the ground, still several steps away from Whirl, grabbed a drink for himself and walked over to the pool. "Not a bartender," he said. "And you're still an aft, Nutjob."  
  
"Not here to bartend either," Swerve said. "Folks can serve themselves, I'm here to swim. Skids, wait up!" He hustled after Skids.  
  
"Some people have no manners," Whirl remarked off-handedly to Rung. "You want anything, Eyebrows?"  
  
"If there's anything midgrade, I'd take it. I've got patients to see in a few cycles and I hate to have to activate my FID before an appointment. Always leaves me feeling shaky."  
  
"That's cause you're old, Doc," Whirl said, but he got up and sauntered over to the crate nonetheless, picking through the bottles and cubes with a delicate claw. Rung peeled his eyes away and looked back at the assembled party. That felt the right word now, everyone now in a thoroughly festive mood.  
  
Somehow they'd pulled Cyclonus away from the huge observation window. Tailgate was now riding on his shoulders, urging him to chase after Chromedome and Rewind, who were similarly piled. Swerve must have brought out a drink for Rewind, because he'd gotten his hands on that and a curly straw, which he was using to spray engex at Tailgate. Tailgate squealed in laughter covering his face with his servos, arms wrapped around Cyclonus's horn to keep his balance.  
  
"Here, Doc," Whirl said, tapping him on the shoulder with a glass of something pale blue and sparkly, a few soft floating energon pearls at the bottom drifting through the drink. The straw was thicker than usual, to be able to suck up the pearls along with the engex. Rung took the drink and nodded his thanks as Whirl sat back down, two claws cradling the roiling multicolored drink he'd mixed himself.  
  
"You can go swim," he said. "There's no need to sit here on my account. You should be having fun."  
  
Whirl laughed, rolling the liquid in the glass around in his claws to make tiny tidal waves. "That's the first time you've ever told me to let loose, you know," he said, eyelight glinting.  
  
"Well, I certainly encourage you to express yourself whenever there's an opportunity for you to do so non-destructively." Rung said, taking a sip of his drink. It was shimmery and cool, a pleasant sensation against his glossa. He double checked the engex content. Whirl had been good as his word, a light mid-grade.  
  
Across the pool, Skids and Swerve were playing a game of catch with energon pearls, Swerve tossing them high in the air and Skids splashing about, trying to catch them in his mouth. He caught one and they both crowed in delight, Swerve throwing his hands up in the air in victory and nearly losing the bag of pearls. Further away, Tailgate had somehow acquired his own straw and he and Rewind were locked in a fearsome engex spraying competition on the shoulders of their bemused steeds.  
  
"Who invited goblin-face anyway?" Whirl asked, nodding at Cyclonus. "He doesn't strike me as a party person, you know?"  
  
"I don't think anyone invited him," Rung said. "I think Rewind invited Tailgate and then Tailgate dragged him along."  
  
There was a hiss of releasing pressure as the door opened again and Rung and Whirl both turned to look as the Captain made his grand entrance. "The party has officially started, your captain is here!" Rodimus announced. He struck nearly the same pose Swerve had, hands on his hips and impossibly proud. Rung had to control himself to stop from giggling at the comparison.  
  
Behind Rodimus, Drift was herding Ratchet. Obviously Ratchet wasn't resisting nearly as hard as he pretended; a speedster couldn't push a sturdy medical bot if they didn't want to be moved. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Ratchet muttered as they followed Rodimus inside.  
  
"Come on, Ratchet, stop dawdling," Rodimus said over his shoulder. "I ordered you to relax for the night."  
  
"And here I am, 'relaxing'. Looking at this room and the bots you've got for this little shindig and imagining every likely injury I'm gonna have to fix tonight."  
  
"We'll be good," Drift said, leaning forward to rest his chin on Ratchet's shoulder. "We promised. And if anything goes wrong, First Aid's on shift for tonight. It can be his problem."  
  
Ratchet stepped away from Drift, crossing his arms awkwardly as he hurried to the oil's edge. "Sure, sure. Were either of you planning on actually swimming or just gabbing? Let's get in."  
  
Someone was feeling a bit awkward, Rung decided. Ratchet wasn't happy about Drift's public displays of affection. Though Rodimus clearly was, giving Drift a big thumbs up behind Ratchet's back before he and Drift followed Ratchet into the water. They quickly caught up by diving into the oil, head first, while Ratchet was still lowering himself in up to his knees.  
  
"Come on, Ratchet!" Drift said, spitting oil as he came back up. "It's great!"  
  
"I'm going to get oil under all my transformation seams and it's gonna be hell to clean," Ratchet grumbled, continuing his slow easing into the oil.  
  
"Drift can clean you off!" Rodimus shouted, causing Drift to grab his shoulders and to to push him under the oil to shut him up. "Drift would love to-" Whatever he was about to say was lost to the oil.  
  
They resurfaced, splashing each other and laughing. Rung redirected his attention to his drink, sucking up the first of the bubbles and popping it against the roof of his mouth in a burst of sweetness. He looked over at Whirl, who had drained half of his drink while he wasn't watching.  
  
"So what were you planning on doing, if you weren't planning on swimming, Doc?" Whirl asked.  
  
"I loaded up a few books I've been meaning to read to internal memory. I thought I might read them on my HUD while I watched the festivities."  
  
"That ain't no way to enjoy a party, Tiny! That's practically homework! I forbid you from doing homework at this party. We can be plenty entertaining."  
  
Just then, Rodimus was pulled under the oil's surface. He shouted in surprise, flailing as somebody caught him around the waist and dragged him down. Rung frowned in concern until a moment later Ratchet popped back up with Rodimus, knocking into Chromedome and toppling him and Rewind.   
  
"Didn't see that coming, did you!" Ratchet said, laughing. It took about 0.2 kliks for that to turn into a splash fight involving every bot in the pool. Even Swerve and Skids joined in. Rung was certain he saw Cyclonus splash Drift after Drift accidentally soaked him and Tailgate while trying to splash Rodimus. It was chaos.  
  
"Okay, maybe you're right, Whirl said, setting down his glass. "I should get in there and show these losers how it's done."  
  
"WHAT IS THIS FOOLISHNESS?" A boomingly loud voice from behind them bellowed. Clamping his free hand over his audial, Rung turned to see Ultra Magnus in the doorway. "The oil reservoir is not for playing about, it's for supplying the fuel furnace!" Ultra Magnus continued. "There are specified recreation areas and this, the fuel reservoir, is not one of them. Rodimus, I am incredibly disappointed that you would make such a poor example for the crew at large by-"  
  
"Look, Mags," Rodimus said, covered from finial to finial in oil from the now frozen splash fight, "I get it. You're disappointed we didn't invite you. I'm sorry! We just thought you might...you know, overreact. But now you're here, so why don't you get on in and have fun?"  
  
"I will not have f-, I will do no such thing. This was reckless and irresponsible. And look," he said, gesturing around him as he walked forwards, "you've gotten oil all over the observation platform. That is a hazard to the-"  
  
One enormous boot hit a slick of oil and slid out from under him. Magnus slipped, reaching out with a hand to grab at the platform and stop himself from falling. His hand, flailing, hit Rung upside the head, knocking him into the oil.  
  
Rung sank. Above him he could hear a muted splash, booming, that must have been Magnus falling in as well. The oil was thick and viscous and it wasn't a whole klik before his optics were useless. The black surrounded him and he drifted down until his back bumped against the smooth bottom of the reservoir and he could fall no further.   
  
He slid his arms along the reservoir bottom, staring straight up into the blackness and trying not to panic. He just needed to keep his intake shut and his vents closed and it would be okay. They wouldn't just leave him like this. They wouldn't forget him at the bottom of the reservoir. Lost in the embrace of oil all around him, trying to worm it's way into his seams and convince him to open his mouth and fill him with the dark, where he belonged.  
  
He clamped his hands over his mouth. Don't panic. The won't forget you here. It's going to be okay.  
  
The oil around him billowed, waves of pressure washing over his sensornet. Then claws appeared from the dark, scooping him up and jetting towards the surface in a froth of oil. They broke the surface and flew up towards the ceiling, Whirl's enormous arms tightening around him as they descended and landed lightly on the observation platform again.  
  
Oil must have seeped under his glasses, everything still dark as voices crowded around him.  
  
"Is he okay?"   
  
"I've never seen anyone sink that fast. Primus, that was scary."  
  
"I am sorry, Rung. That was my mistake," Ultra Magnus said from somewhere on his left.  
  
Rung turned his head and wiped at his face, trying to get the oil off his lips with an equally dirty hand.  
  
"Okay, okay, back off. Give him some space, geez, morons," Ratchet said. Someone lifted off Rung's glasses and light flooded back, a blur of his crewmates surrounding him.  
  
"Rung, why don't you float? Everybody floats," Rodimus, a moron, opined.  
  
"Well, clearly everybody doesn't include Eyebrows over here," Whirl hissed. "And back off, the doctor said to give him some space."  
  
"-although I would point out that I could not have tripped if it weren't for all the oil splashed all over the platform. So, in actuality, the blame for my knocking you into the oil is more properly placed with Rodimus," Ultra Magnus continued, undeterred.  
  
His glasses were settled back on his face, freshly cleaned and everyone bloomed into focus. They looked concerned, more concerned than they had any right to be.  
  
"I'm sorry for worrying you," he said, accepting the cleaning town Ratchet offered him and pulling it tight around his shoulders. "I'm just fine. No harm done."  
  
"Why don't you float?" Rodimus asked, unable to ever let go of anything once a question had popped into his head.  
  
"I don't know," Rung said flatly. "It doesn't really matter, though. You should all go on, enjoy your party. I'll just get out of your way."  
  
"No way!" Tailgate said, pushing forward through the crowd. "That's unfair. You should be able to enjoy the party as much as us. We can fix this. We'll make you float!"  
  
"No one should enjoy this 'party'. It is an improper use of official facilities," Ultra Magnus said.  
  
Rodimus stood up to his full height and poked at Ultra Magnus. "I am the Captain of the Lost Light. I decide what is a proper use of facilities. And I have decided, in my official capacity as Captain of this vessel, that the reservoir is additionally designated as a recreational area. I order the assembled crew to enjoy their pool party!"  
  
"Look, I don't want to be a bother," Rung said, wiping the oil off of him with the towel. "I can just go."  
  
"The crew will all enjoy the pool party. Tailgate, lead the way!" Rodimus said, pointing theatrically at the door.  
  
They trooped over to Perceptor's lab, dripping oil all over the tidy clean floors of the hallways and driving Ultra Magnus to distraction. "Going to have to reassign the cleaning droids from sections gamma and zeta," he muttered under his breath.  
  
Upon arriving at Perceptor's lab, the found he was there with Brainstorm, two improbably attired holomatter avatars in the midst of a danceoff on the lab bench.  
  
Tailgate burst through the door. "MAKE RUNG FLOAT!" Tailgate ordered.  
  
The dancing avatars froze. Brainstorm stopped the instrument he was holding. Perceptor turned and looked at them, narrowing his optic in confusion.  
  
"What the frag?"  
  


* * *

  
  
Small delay aside, the party was back in full swing. And with the addition of Brainstorm and Perceptor, they had some music to liven the place up as well. They were still duking it out with their holomatter danceoff on the observation platform, but most everyone else was ignoring them and enjoying the music.  
  
Rung patted his trusty steed and flotation device as the oil's surface bobbed with a wave from the other side of the pool. They'd gone a bit overboard, he thought. The one floatie was quite enough, secured around his waist so he could comfortably sit in the oil without sinking. The extra emergency floats around his arms were simply unnecessary. Ah, well, at least they'd talked brainstorm out of arming it with rocket launchers as he'd initially proposed.  
  
"Who do you think is going to win?" Rewind asked, floating beside him, arms moving languidly as he kept himself in the same spot for his film. Rung looked over at Tailgate, seated on the edge of the platform as he mixed drinks, but then realized Rewind must have meant to ask him.  
  
"I have no idea. In alt-modes, I would say Cyclonus, but neither of them are terribly aerodynamic when they're swimming," he said, swirling his drink in his hand.  
  
"I dunno, Whirl looked pretty freakin aerodynamic when he dove in after you. He was like a, a, I don't know. What's a thing that's good at swimming?" Tailgate asked. "He was like that. Cyclonus is absolutely going to win, though. He's just the fastest."  
  
Rung and Rewind shared a glance, but didn't say anything. Somehow half the party had gotten roped into helping with the race Whirl had challenged Cyclonus to. Rung had thought for sure that Cyclonus would merely ignore him, but here they were. Chromedome judging, Rewind filming, Skids and Swerve marking the start and endpoints. On the other side of the pool, Ratchet was watching and laughing as Drift tried to teach Rodimus how to float on your back, a lesson that seemed to include the instructions "Legs up! Legs up!" an awful lot. Rodimus didn't seem to be very good at it.  
  
With a roar of revving engines, the race started. Rung turned to look, but with the splashing it was nigh impossible to tell who was winning or what was happening at all. Rewind's footage was probably not going to amount to much. Nearly as soon as it was started, it was over, Cyclonus raising his arm in understated triumph as Swerve bellowed out the winner.  
  
"Okay, you absolutely cheated!" Whirl said, glaring at everyone.  
  
"Even if cheating was not beneath my honor," Cyclonus said, "I simply do not care enough about your little challenge to lower myself to-"  
  
And thus the great splash war began anew.  
  
Rodimus, finally floating, yelled over to Magnus, "Look Magnus! I got it! You having fun yet Magnus?"  
  
But Magnus wasn't where he had been, treading oil peacefully by the bay windows. Drift looked around in confusion and shrugged.  
  
But in a tidal wave of oil, Ultra Magnus rose up from the deep to splash Rodimus. He looked down on his Captain and nearly, Rung would have said very nearly, smiled. "I think I begin to see the appeal," he said, then began to swim for shore. He lifted himself out of the oil with one heave of those massive arms. The cleaning droid he'd requisitioned flew around him, blowing the excess oil off his frame so as to keep the hallways clean.  
  
"I expect this whole room to be clean on my next patrol, Rodimus," he said over his shoulder as he made his exit.  
  
Rung considered his drink. It was good. It was certainly delicious. But it was missing something. Rummaging through one of the compartments above his hip, he brought out a single tiny paper umbrella, bright pink. With a fingertip he pushed the umbrella open and poked it into the drink.  
  
Perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! This wasn't edited, so if you saw a mistake feel free to correct. I'm over on tumblr at [ notwhelmedyet](http://notwhelmedyet.tumblr.com/).


End file.
